Guild Wars 2

Hello Everyone.

If you are like me, you participated in the HoT stress test Beta today.
…and if you didn’t get to participate you are ravenously reading through forum posts trying to gather information regarding the Beta.

What I see is a lot of white knighting on the forums.

Players saying the game is “great” or that they “had fun.”
…and that is all good and well.

…but what we experienced today in the HoT “beta” is nowhere even near anything I would even call a beta or an alpha.

What we saw today was the next episode of the living story dressed up to appear like it will be expansion after some serious overhaul…. when there is currently nowhere near an expansion-sized chunk of content even close to finished for HoT.

I feel that continuing the living world…. putting up a pay wall and labeling it as an expansion is unacceptable….

Imagine Gw2 comes with a cup in which we receive our Living World updates, and that cup is now full.
In order to continue receiving Living world updates you are going to have to purchase this “expansion” which is just another cup to receive more Living World updates.

This is not an expansion…. this is more Living world.

For the Gw2 stress test betas, players were able to test “the game.” ….For the Gw2:HoT stress test beta we got a living story instance, that same living story instance made to look like an explorable map, half of a new profession, and a boss fight.

It looks like all of the work that has gone into the “expansion” so far amounts to one episode of living story….. and I really feel like this is a final “sinking ship” cash grab move by Anet in order to get players to dish out money just to continue receiving the living world.

What I “beta tested” was the next episode of the Living World, and I would be insulted if HoT ends up being content we were going to see in future episodes of Living world hiding behind a pay wall.

Thank you for reading.

Do you really feel that the small amount of content shown in the Demo/Stress Test is the width and breadth of the expansion?

Do you think they would show everything, everything in the Demo/Stress Test before even announcing in-depth all the expansion has to offer?

If so, I think you will be surprised.

Did you even finish the story section?

Also, and I don’t know about you, but I saw a little door just above the minimap that suggested that I could leave the story instance if I wanted to. I didn’t, but the option to not try out the story and go straight to the actual beta content was there. (The legendary wyvern was pretty nice)

I admit the beta test is already over, but there was a true stress test. Its a bit of a pity if you had missed it and thought the only thing was ‘story content’.

Looking at the map, there were at least two new level 80 zones outside the demo area, and Verdant Brink itself looked quite large.

TheBlackLeech.9360:

What I see is a lot of white knighting on the forums.

Also known as people who don’t agree with you. Also seeing as how the title should have been “My Biggest Concern about HoT”, clearly you’re lacking a bit of ‘theory of mind’.

TheBlackLeech.9360:

…but what we experienced today in the HoT “beta” is nowhere even near anything I would even call a beta or an alpha.

It was a stress beta…

TheBlackLeech.9360:

What we saw today was the next episode of the living story dressed up to appear like it will be expansion after some serious overhaul…. when there is currently nowhere near an expansion-sized chunk of content even close to finished for HoT.

They used the demo for the stress beta…

TheBlackLeech.9360:

I feel that continuing the living world…. putting up a pay wall and labeling it as an expansion is unacceptable….

Yes I agree. Do you have proof of this?

TheBlackLeech.9360:

For the Gw2 stress test betas, players were able to test “the game.” ….

So you know it was a stress test? Are you struggling with the meaning of the word ‘stress’ or ‘test’?

What are you talking about? The stress test was in now way a full “beta experience”. Its a stress test of the area thats been used in the demo. From datamined information alone we already know thats a ton of content outside of the demo.

What do you expect from a demo and a stress test, a full live preview of the end product?

I think all of you are missing the point I’m trying to make.

I of course understand this is an unfinished product, because nobody would pay a dime for what we beta tested earlier.

What I am getting at is….. this “expansion” they are working on is a sorry excuse even for a living story episode.

It is a living story episode that Anet is overinflating to make it look like an expansion.

Look at Dry Top

Look at Silverwastes

Look at Southsun Cove

and look at this.

It is literally no different… save they are adding a new profession.

So why is Anet putting it behind a pay wall?

TheBlackLeech.9360:

What I “beta tested” was the next episode of the Living World, and I would be insulted if HoT ends up being content we were going to see in future episodes of Living world hiding behind a pay wall.

What you’ve “Beta” tested was the official PAX DEMO nothing more nothing less !!
You’ve seen ONE Story instance and the smallest possible area of a huge Map.

you came here and flame around about the weak “Beta” while it was nothing more than a STRESS TEST
I know many ppl who would be happy to be part of this stress test as they were not able to visit PAX or EGX
Jeez you could play the Demo-Setup without the time limitation of 40 Minutes and without queuing for multiple hours!!

We didn’t know much about the volume of the XPac (number of maps / replayability / size of the maps / map mechanics / length of the story / etc etc etc) if you know the content please share your knowledge with us … otherwise you’re not able to judge the content of the XPac by a DEMO that was created for random strangers of PAX / EGX who just can play 40 minutes.

Judging the whole xpac by a small demo flaming around with “just LS behind paywall” is just wrong (and again if you know way more then we do give us your information)

You were just there because ANet wanted to test the Beta-Client-in-Live-Client-implementation – server loads – pings – whatever so that they can start the normal closed/public beta without the mistakes they made in the Beta before launch —> it was a STRESS TEST but some people obviously like to take the candy they got and throw it back into the face of the ones who gave it to them.

TheBlackLeech.9360:

Look at Dry Top
Look at Silverwastes
Look at Southsun Cove
and look at this.

It is literally no different… save they are adding a new profession.

So why is Anet putting it behind a pay wall?

And new large Maps (it won’t be just one i think)
And Guild Halls
And Masteries
And a whole new Story – fully voiced (even your character speaks again)
And specializations
And new WvW Borderlands
And Stronghold
And new stuff we didn’t know yet in total (eg. dungeons? new Armor Sets / new legendarys / Precursor-hunt / MiniGames (challenges) / world bosses? / Legendary-Bosses like Wyvern / …

its really just an LS-Episode !

TheBlackLeech.9360:

I think all of you are missing the point I’m trying to make.

I of course understand this is an unfinished product, because nobody would pay a dime for what we beta tested earlier.

What I am getting at is….. this “expansion” they are working on is a sorry excuse even for a living story episode.

It is a living story episode that Anet is overinflating to make it look like an expansion.

Look at Dry Top

Look at Silverwastes

Look at Southsun Cove

and look at this.

It is literally no different… save they are adding a new profession.

So why is Anet putting it behind a pay wall?

Because it is an expansion. Its not a tiny little living story episode. Its not a bit of story dressed up. Its a huge piece of content with tons of new features, a few new maps, a borderland and…well the list gors on.

The difference between dry top and this is so huge it is incomparable. If anything it
will count for a season or more of story rather than one episode. Where on earth did you get it would just one single episode from anyway?

We got a demo, specifically tweaked and reduced for a stress test. A little introduction and thats it. To base judgement on an entire expansion on this….is just bizarre.

Am i concerned? No, not in the the slightest tiny little bit

You do know that this was basically the PAX demo, right? In no way, shape, or form is this going to be the final product. You’re over-reacting to a small stress test before they even get into the full beta.

Randulf.7614:

TheBlackLeech.9360:

I think all of you are missing the point I’m trying to make.

I of course understand this is an unfinished product, because nobody would pay a dime for what we beta tested earlier.

What I am getting at is….. this “expansion” they are working on is a sorry excuse even for a living story episode.

It is a living story episode that Anet is overinflating to make it look like an expansion.

Look at Dry Top

Look at Silverwastes

Look at Southsun Cove

and look at this.

It is literally no different… save they are adding a new profession.

So why is Anet putting it behind a pay wall?

Because it is an expansion. Its not a tiny little living story episode. Its not a bit of story dressed up. Its a huge piece of content with tons of new features, a few new maps, a borderland and…well the list gors on.

The difference between dry top and this is so huge it is incomparable. If anything it
will count for a season or more of story rather than one episode. Where on earth did you get it would just one single episode from anyway?

We got a demo, specifically tweaked and reduced for a stress test. A little introduction and thats it. To base judgement on an entire expansion on this….is just bizarre.

Am i concerned? No, not in the the slightest tiny little bit

based on what they have revealed so far, i think the expansion will end up feeling like a living story half season, with some actual features bundled in.
Its not really enough for a traditional expansion in my eyes, but if the price is lower, i guess it will be fine.
I would love to be wrong though, and have the expansion feel like something new and exciting, deep, and interesting. But from what they have said, and showed, i think a more realistic expectation is that it will be
3 zones
1 new profression
new specialization mechanic

about a half season of story.

Berelious.3290:

You do know that this was basically the PAX demo, right? In no way, shape, or form is this going to be the final product. You’re over-reacting to a small stress test before they even get into the full beta.

This.

Again…. I am aware that this is just a beta and there will be more.

I just don’t think you realize that this “demo” is actually just a repackaged Living Story.

If no expansion was announced, and the living world just continued on what do you think we would see?

TheBlackLeech.9360:

Again…. I am aware that this is just a beta and there will be more.

I just don’t think you realize that this “demo” is actually just a repackaged Living Story.

If no expansion was announced, and the living world just continued on what do you think we would see?

I didn’t get to test the beta, and though I see your concern let’s hope your wrong. Yes, we only get a new profession but if you tested the betas for gw 2 you’ll remember the only area we had access to at first was Queensdale.

I don’t think we would see things like profession evolution and everything that should go with that. If this is just a huge LS expansion then players will get through the content fairly fast and many will likely leave the game, including all those players who have been returning. No one wants that. Here’s to hoping your completing wrong.

it’s a beta test for a demo guys. demo is just the tip of the iceberg.

TheBlackLeech.9360:

Again…. I am aware that this is just a beta and there will be more.

I just don’t think you realize that this “demo” is actually just a repackaged Living Story.

If no expansion was announced, and the living world just continued on what do you think we would see?

Considerably less than this. Its an expansion of their living world yes. But we knew that…the living world is the core of their game.

Im still not seeing the concern after a tiny little demo which was designed not to reveal all the stuff to come.

We cant judge the size and scope based on what has been tested so far

TheBlackLeech.9360:

I would be insulted if HoT ends up being content we were going to see in future episodes of Living world hiding behind a pay wall.*

When they did that announcement thing this is what many said. For an expansion it seemed to lack content. Some have argued that even though they are just adding 1 zone, that zone will have 3 layers.

But yes many do not call this a real expansion atm, some have called it Living World Season 3 with a Feature Pack put together to be sold as an apparent expansion.

But we’ll have to wait until release to see. But if the above is the case then it will upset a few players.

what i want for HoT release are more stronghold like maps, making it a separate gamemode of 8v8 and a guild ladder based on this gamemode.

probably they are hinting about this because of the guild hall? lets see.

Rofl you played the demo the press already experienced, in a stress test fashion. How on earth didnt you realized that? There’s skrittload more content to show. Keep calm and wait next test

Orochimaru.4730:

When they did that announcement thing this is what many said. For an expansion it seemed to lack content. Some have argued that even though they are just adding 1 zone, that zone will have 3 layers.

They are adding one REGION. They are adding multiple zones/maps in that region.

TheBlackLeech.9360:

Again…. I am aware that this is just a beta and there will be more.

Unfortunately, you clearly did not understand the purpose of this “beta”. It was a stress test, it was not the beta that will come later. If you have trouble understanding that, then sorry, but you did not read the emails or the news about this stress test. This is not a beta as you clearly think it was.

Please read the emails they send you more carefully to understand what, exactly, it is you are supposed to be testing, if you get the opportunity to test it again. It’s people like you that make me wish that I, and many other people, got the invite instead, since you really had no idea what was going on.

Not sure why… But this post is actually a little irritating. So. The original GW2 release gave us a story. A massive open world. Eight classes and five races to choose from. Three WvW borderlands and Eternal Battle ground. Two PvP game types with a hand full of maps. After launch we were updated with two seasons of living story, completely free, mind you (unless of course you didn’t log in during the second season in which 200 gems isn’t that much. 30-40g-ish per episode).

Heart of Thorns, which we still have no idea how much it is actually going to be yet, is offering, as we know: Continuation to the story. A massive update to the map (Heart of the Maguuma. Not sure if you’ve looked at the map lately, but the Maguuma is the far west side of the map. Which includes both the Magus Falls and the Maguuma Wastes). A new WvW map. A new PvP game type with a new map, and most likely more to come with seasons. A new class and specializations for all existing classes as well as the new class. And the Mastery system (Which is being put in place across ALL of Tyria). (Probably forgot something, but you get the gist.)

Now with all that said. As someone who was part of the “Stress Tests” (NOT BETA; The tag was there but that’s NOT what this was) I can honestly say I am liking what I’ve seen so far and am very excited to see what is to come. I am one who is willing to pay for the continuation of this game. Remember, even with the cash shop in place, they still need a good source of income. Paid expansions are that way. You still play the game which means you enjoy the content. Which means Anet needs to keep paying it’s employees to keep producing the content in which you so enjoy.

Wait for more information on what they are offering, in full, before judging it. We have no idea how big this expansion is actually going to be. All Anet has given us thus far is the major features. They have yet to connect all the dots in between. So until then don’t be shooting down all the people who actually had fun and thought the Stress Test Was great.

Orochimaru.4730:

TheBlackLeech.9360:

I would be insulted if HoT ends up being content we were going to see in future episodes of Living world hiding behind a pay wall.*

When they did that announcement thing this is what many said. For an expansion it seemed to lack content. Some have argued that even though they are just adding 1 zone, that zone will have 3 layers.

But yes many do not call this a real expansion atm, some have called it Living World Season 3 with a Feature Pack put together to be sold as an apparent expansion.

But we’ll have to wait until release to see. But if the above is the case then it will upset a few players.

This is exactly what I have been talking about….. we went from getting content packets every two weeks to nothing….

Then all the content we are supposed to be getting is being saved up and labeled as “expansion”

I would compare it to
Giving a hungry person a bite of a hamburger every hour… for free….
Giving a hungry person an entire hamburger all at once and making him pay for it.

It is nothing more than the Living Story episodes and Feature packs we have already been getting… being saved up and given to us as a whole instead of in bite-sized pieces…. and there is a price tag associated with it.

But that is what every expansion ever is.
It is just a bunch of releases put together and given a price tag. Why is it suddenly such a surprise?

Keep in mind that people have been demanding a paid expansion since the Living Story started more or less. And over and over again shouted about how “we” rather have a bunched up story than the two week small releases. Now we are getting exactly that.

lordkrall.7241:

But that is what every expansion ever is.
It is just a bunch of releases put together and given a price tag. Why is it suddenly such a surprise? .

Nobody said anything about a surprise.

It is just too little too late.

If they gave us a paid expansion on top of a continued Living World it would have been met with the highest praise.

Stopping the Living World to save up content and then delivering said content in the form of an expansion is not what anyone asked for.

Back to the silly hamburger anaolgy….
If you stop feeding a hungry person he starves to death…. even if he will get an entire meal somewhere down the line.

Keeping a hungry person alive with small bites of food then giving him a meal once in a while is what players have been asking for…. and it is clearly not what we are going to get.

Ummm, you do realize what a “stress test” is don’t you? It wasn’t meant for a large scale beta to test how things work together, they were putting stress on the environment to see how it reacted and to identify glaring bugs. This has to come before any real beta can be planned out. Seems you either didn’t understand the purpose of that time, or you simply want something to react negatively to on the forums.

TheBlackLeech.9360:

It is nothing more than the Living Story episodes and Feature packs we have already been getting… being saved up and given to us as a whole instead of in bite-sized pieces…. and there is a price tag associated with it.

and whats the difference here to any other MMORPG (or any other DLC at all?) you are just used to get regular content for free and now start flaming around that the XPac is nothing more than LS 3
EVERY Expansion ist just a collection of new Content ..
EVERY GAME is just an Collection of content at all .. dude the’ve been working on it since start of LS 1 and its not just that what you’ve seen in Stress-Test

TheBlackLeech.9360:

Keeping a hungry person alive with small bites of food then giving him a meal once in a while is what players have been asking for…. and it is clearly not what we are going to get.

But we already got small pieces of food … but were hungry for a big dinner

im totally by your side that the time now till the XPac releases suxx and that the lack of new Story is Disgusting … but blaming the XPac for the little piece of bread you’ve seen so far is absolutely useless and just trolling

OP, to address your ‘concern’ what you played was the demo that was available at PAX and Rezzed for the express purpose of stress testing the servers. It was not, in fact, a beta, as Gaile has stated elsewhere as she’s been cleaning up threads.

Game demos, as most of us are aware, are generally a very small tidbit of the actual game to come. To give players a peak at what to expect. Just enough to wet the whistle, per se.

Whether there is a price tag or not is totally irrelevant. It’s content, people work for you to get you that content, it’s a product. THus you pay for it.

They tried giving it for free while trying to get people to pay them through the ingame store. But that is not very reliable to provide a huge content update. Thus you pay for an expansion.

That said, you can’t get any update for this game anywhere else for free, ArenaNet is in their full right to provide their content in any way they want. Whether it’s reliant on a few who buy gems or on everyone paying an equal amount is just a difference.

I think you have a valid discussion here, but you’re burying it in hyperbole, supposition and name calling.

If HOT were released and it was roughly equivalent to a living story season, is that something we should be expected to pay for when the modus operandi to date has been to provide that level of content for free?

I don’t think there is anything to worry about for two reasons – 1. HOT should be considerably more content than we saw with either of the two living story seasons and 2. The living story should continue to expand the world post HOT (whether it should be expanding it now as we wait for the expansion is another topic addressed in MANY other threads).

Specifically to the first point, let’s look at what we received in season two:

• 38 living story chapters
• Dry top and Silverwastes
• Minor gameplay changes through the September Feature Pack

I dont see the expansion being anywhere near that small. I fully expect the story they are adding with the expansion to be significantly longer than 38 episodes, in addition to multiple new (multi level) maps, wvw additions and the pvp growth. The fractal mastery line makes me thing big things are coming there as well. Add to that continued living story post HOT and we should have a lot to look forward to.

I also believe much of this expansion is about setting the groundwork for easier addition of content through living story. Things like specializations and masteries just scream flexible design and fast addition.

TL;DR – I don’t think there is anything to worry about. The expansion should be considerably more content than we’ve seen with either living story chapter.

TheBlackLeech.9360:

lordkrall.7241:

But that is what every expansion ever is.
It is just a bunch of releases put together and given a price tag. Why is it suddenly such a surprise? .

Nobody said anything about a surprise.

It is just too little too late.

If they gave us a paid expansion on top of a continued Living World it would have been met with the highest praise.

Stopping the Living World to save up content and then delivering said content in the form of an expansion is not what anyone asked for.

Back to the silly hamburger anaolgy….
If you stop feeding a hungry person he starves to death…. even if he will get an entire meal somewhere down the line.

Keeping a hungry person alive with small bites of food then giving him a meal once in a while is what players have been asking for…. and it is clearly not what we are going to get.

well, I am very certainly not known to be a white knight around here. That being said, your argument is completely flawed.

a) you absolutely do not understand what that beta test has been.
b) you act like you are in any way entitled to free living story updates. Which you are not. It was Anet´s choice to expand their content that way. Whether they really withheld updates to create an expansion or not, you were not swindled out of anything.

Sigh, sometimes I wonder why people who actually seem to play the game show a greater, more general and completely unfounded dislike of it than me who does not play it out of general dislike.

Also, Guild Wars 2 is in no way comparable to anything as life sustaining as food. If anything the money we give ArenaNet is the food, and the content we get is the produce we get from feeding them.

Blaeys.3102:

I think you have a valid discussion here, but you’re burying it in hyperbole, supposition and name calling.

If HOT were released and it was roughly equivalent to a living story season, is that something we should be expected to pay for when the modus operandi to date has been to provide that level of content for free?

I don’t think there is anything to worry about for two reasons – 1. HOT should be considerably more content than we saw with either of the two living story seasons and 2. The living story should continue to expand the world post HOT (whether it should be expanding it now as we wait for the expansion is another topic addressed in MANY other threads).

Specifically to the first point, let’s look at what we received in season two:

• 38 living story chapters
• Dry top and Silverwastes
• Minor gameplay changes through the September Feature Pack

I dont see the expansion being anywhere near that small. I fully expect the story they are adding with the expansion to be significantly longer than 38 episodes, in addition to multiple new (multi level) maps, wvw additions and the pvp growth. The fractal mastery line makes me thing big things are coming there as well. Add to that continued living story post HOT and we should have a lot to look forward to.

I also believe much of this expansion is about setting the groundwork for easier addition of content through living story. Things like specializations and masteries just scream flexible design and fast addition.

TL;DR – I don’t think there is anything to worry about. The expansion should be considerably more content than we’ve seen with either living story chapter.

it will probably be about equal to a season, or half a season, which honestly seems a bit small.

Of course the price is unknown, so maybe if its not too high, then it will seem fine. Most people will buy it regardless of price, but will they have a good feeling after? thats important for an MMO.

I’m starting to think Nexon has an influence in all this.

They probably were demanding an expansion to the point Anet just said “Oh shut up, here we’ll put the Living Story out as one.”

TurtleofPower.5641:

I’m starting to think Nexon has an influence in all this.

They probably were demanding an expansion to the point Anet just said “Oh shut up, here we’ll put the Living Story out as one.”

nah, their living story business model was bleeding profits fairly consistently. They needed to revitalize things and shake them up. Which is fine

But the issue is, will they be able to put enough content in, so that it feels like its big enough to warrant being called an expansion. So far it seems smallish, and not varied enough, if the price tag is 40+ If its 10-20, then i guess its fine.

Regardless in the future i hope new expansions tread area that feels more new, different and interesting. go to elona, or cantha, or some new continent. Dramatically different locales, and cultures, better designed encounters/bosses would also be good

TheBlackLeech.9360:

What I see is a lot of white knighting on the forums

Pretty much lost all credibility right there.

TheBlackLeech.9360:

…but what we experienced today in the HoT “beta” is nowhere even near anything I would even call a beta or an alpha.

Hmm, would you perhaps call it a “stress test?”

TheBlackLeech.9360:

What we saw today was the next episode of the living story dressed up to appear like it will be expansion after some serious overhaul….

Actually, what you saw was the PAX/Rezzed demo dressed down to be a stress test.

TheBlackLeech.9360:

For the Gw2 stress test betas, players were able to test “the game.” ….For the Gw2:HoT stress test beta we got a living story instance, that same living story instance made to look like an explorable map, half of a new profession, and a boss fight.

Were you even around for the GW2 stress tests? I recall being able to test a small subset of the game for about 2 hours.

This thread just proves to me some players are more concerned with bad mouthing Anet than offering an honest critic of the experience. Using terms like, “white knight”, “unacceptable” and “pay wall” just highlight that they have an agenda far beyond providing information on what they experienced during the test.

Just to be clear, I feel the same way about the “Great job, Anet!!!!!”, threads too. (EDIT: that they are useless to non-stress test players and a waste of forum bandwidth).

Yeah, I played the demo at RezzedEGX and this was just a 2 hour rehash of that.

As for the use of “story instance” boundaries within the stresstest, Im fairly certain that’s just to stop people to explore the full map just yet before it’s actually ready. I am surprised that some people think that that means it was a story instance instead.

I think if anyone is expecting an expansion the size of a gw1 expansion then you are going to be disappointed…

I’m just happy for new content

The only reasons I would not buy.
5 × 3 layer zones or less.
Waterfalls and creeks, which means no underwater exploration.

We’ll have a better idea on the size of the “expansion” when they release its price. No reason to fret just yet.

Lmao, you people complaining about the lack of content between the end of Season 2 and Heart of Thorns clearly have forgotten how poorly paced other MMORPGS like World of Warcraft are when it comes time for the pre-expansion period.

Icecrown Citadel was ‘current content’ for a year, excluding the ruby sanctum mini-raid. More recently, Siege of Orgrimmar lasted OVER A YEAR. Thats 13 months with NO content in a paid subscription game.

GW2 Living Story -> Heart of Thorns content gap is literally nothing compared to that.

It makes me so upset to see some of these ungrateful people get access to BETA events.

Thank you TheBlackLeech. You expressed my concerns about the expansion after they said we’ve seen all of what they plan to release.

During the Living Story, we were assured by the white knights (yes, that is what they are because there’s been nothing but personal attacks on TheBlackLeech in this thread from them) that Anet was busy working on a big unreleased project. Now we see that that project is an expansion with the same amount of content we’ve gotten in the LS over a year. And it seems that they are taking longer to develop it. So I can understand how people are disappointed. What they will be getting is LS3 all at once (which is what some people want anyway, so not everyone will be unhappy), and not what most would consider a true expansion.

Like phys, I will probably make my final assessment based on how much they will charge us for this “expansion.”

Can I ask how we can def see this is the same content as one season? All the info isn’t out there yet, but it’s already more than than Season 2 had

I can’t fathom how anyone could draw any definitive conclusions about HoT based on what’s been said about it and this mini-Beta.

I look at GW1 as a guide (having been playing these games for 11 years). It, too, had expansion packs – two of them – plus add-ons. Elona and Cantha were entire worlds, games unto themselves. Eye of the North was an add-on pack for any of the games, with tons of content, new maps, and other buffs and bonuses.

Although GW2 has a different game management style, it’s still made by the same people who gave us GW1. And I don’t expect they’re going to low-ball a LS add-on, or bother to beta test something like that at all. SW and Dry Top weren’t Beta tested. Some of the LS stuff has changed a bit since the beginning. No beta testing there, either.

What I saw was a server/user test.

They had to do load balancing for the new content. From an IT perspective, if they felt they had to do that, there is a TON of content there because otherwise there’d be no point. One server could handle it, based on the number of players I saw there and they wanted to check scaling and other aspects we take for granted because the mechanics aren’t always apparent. They also had to test it on “other machines”, to check how it performed under uncontrolled conditions in multiple user environments.

This is merely the first step before releasing other content.

So from an IT point of view (I own an IT services business) and a GW playing history going back to 2004, what I saw today makes perfect sense if you’re rolling out something gigantic and I expect great things from these folks. It makes no sense, mechanically or technically, to have a closed “stress” beta for something as small as a simple paywall LS add-on.

And nothing I saw, or know of, justifies in any way the conclusions made by the detractors. A business doesn’t waste its time hyping to its current fan base something that will only highly irritate the fans when it comes out (Sim City notwithstanding), or wasting resources beta testing what amounts to relatively minor adjustments to the game environment.

To quote Burt Gummer from Tremors 3 “It’s gonna be BIG!”

lordkrall.7241:

Orochimaru.4730:

When they did that announcement thing this is what many said. For an expansion it seemed to lack content. Some have argued that even though they are just adding 1 zone, that zone will have 3 layers.

They are adding one REGION. They are adding multiple zones/maps in that region.

By zone, I did mean region.
I was using Zone = several maps, you Region = several zones.
Funny thing when you use similar words.

But still for an expansion this is a little lacking. GW came with almost 30 zones. The new region will probably have 3 zones, 3 layers, so still only 9 in total; and we still do not know how detailed they will be.

So an expansion with a third of the original map area added? Still kindda sounds small for an expansion.

Randulf.7614:

Can I ask how we can def see this is the same content as one season? All the info isn’t out there yet, but it’s already more than than Season 2 had

Literally no one outside of ANet can make such a claim. No one knows the full scope of the content, so OP is lying when he says this is just a Living World season because there is no way he could know from just playing the stress test.

just for a comparison let’s have a look at the 3.0 expansion in Rift
http://forums.riftgame.com/general-discussions/patch-notes/442490-rift-3-0-nightmare-tide-7-00am-pdt-10-22-14-na-2-00pm-gmt-10-22-14-eu.html

and it was totally for FREE

and now look at the amount of content of HoT with the knowledge that it will be NOT for FREE

so…seriously…why do ppl even have to pay for this HoT when other companies can do bigger expansions for free?

I didn’t really mind the lack of content. After all, it was only to stress test the servers and see how they cope with people from all over the world playing it at the same time – not give players an opportunity to have a free-for-all play at a huge chunk of the expansion.

I would, however, hope that sometime in the near future Anet opens the Beta gates to players experiencing the new WvW Borderlands. It looks so epic… and a lot of my time spent in GW2 is doing WvW and EOTM, so that’s the thing that would really float my boat.